A Ministry of Defence press officer has claimed that being forced to tell lies about the war in Iraq has left him with post-traumatic stress disorder.

John Salisbury-Baker, 62, who spoke for the Armed Forces in the North East, said that he had struggled to cope with a stress-related condition for the past two years. He is based at the Imphal Barracks in York.

He is pursuing a claim for disability discrimination on the grounds that the stress of the job has effectively left him physically disabled.

Mr Salisbury-Baker is expected to tell a tribunal panel later this year that he had to defend the “morally indefensible” when telling the media that army vehicles such as Snatch Land Rovers were capable of withstanding roadside bombs.